I'm an affiliate scholar at Georgetown's Institute for Technology Law and Policy, and a computer science professor emeritus and former affiliate law prof at Columbia University. Author of "Thinking Security". Dinosaur photographer. Not ashamed to say that I’m still masking, because long Covid terrifies me.
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2026-08-20T01:19:59Z Event JSON
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Last Notes npub1rt8xs3e8gkexg2f5cctjckv57hcffuqaad6jz3wj2gj7vdag0fgqwnashz Steve Bellovin @nprofile…wuv3 @nprofile…ss2c Technical nit: they didn't "hear" the case; rather, that's an order "granting certiorari", i.e., agreeing to hear the case. And the order is about a technical but important question: where a defendant can be tried. (There is a constitutional right to be tried in the state and "district" where the alleged offense occurred.) npub1rt8xs3e8gkexg2f5cctjckv57hcffuqaad6jz3wj2gj7vdag0fgqwnashz Steve Bellovin That hackers got into Patel’s gmail account suggests one of two possibilities: his device or devices were hacked, or his password was phished and he doesn’t use good 2FA. npub1rt8xs3e8gkexg2f5cctjckv57hcffuqaad6jz3wj2gj7vdag0fgqwnashz Steve Bellovin I've been thinking about the FCC's insane new ban on foreign-made routers. Note the end of the BBC story at https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c74787w149zo: npub1rt8xs3e8gkexg2f5cctjckv57hcffuqaad6jz3wj2gj7vdag0fgqwnashz Steve Bellovin @nprofile…gu7x Long-time mantra of mine: data that doesn’t exist can’t be stolen. npub1rt8xs3e8gkexg2f5cctjckv57hcffuqaad6jz3wj2gj7vdag0fgqwnashz Steve Bellovin Two stories, side by side, in the NY Times Technology section. npub1rt8xs3e8gkexg2f5cctjckv57hcffuqaad6jz3wj2gj7vdag0fgqwnashz Steve Bellovin I just received a reminder from building management about an overdue maintenance bill. We need to pay it at once, or—if we've already paid it—tell them the check number. Fair enough—but the attached invoice was for $0… Yup—it's 2026 and that sort of thing still happens. (Do I need to dust off my very rusty COBOL skills and offer my services?) npub1rt8xs3e8gkexg2f5cctjckv57hcffuqaad6jz3wj2gj7vdag0fgqwnashz Steve Bellovin Anyone know who came up with the phrase "spicy autocomplete" for LLMs? npub1rt8xs3e8gkexg2f5cctjckv57hcffuqaad6jz3wj2gj7vdag0fgqwnashz Steve Bellovin It won't happen, given the heavyweight process for amending the US constitution (¾ of the states must ratify!), but I keep wondering what a reasonable amendment or tranche of amendments would be necessary to keep MAGAism from happening again. Out of scope: something like switching to a parliamentary system, since that would take a constitutional convention and a whole new document. Anti-gerrymandering? Strengthening the Fourth Amendment to seriously constrain ICE-like tactics? Change some "should appoint" to "must appoint" for various offices, with backup mechanisms in case the president doesn't act? Clearer assertion of Congressional control over the budget and war-making? npub1rt8xs3e8gkexg2f5cctjckv57hcffuqaad6jz3wj2gj7vdag0fgqwnashz Steve Bellovin @nprofile…kjcu PEM was intended as a PGP killer, and a lot of the issues involved the fighting around the RSA patent. npub1rt8xs3e8gkexg2f5cctjckv57hcffuqaad6jz3wj2gj7vdag0fgqwnashz Steve Bellovin Does Article 5 of the NATO treaty apply to insider attacks? Asking for a territory of Denmark's. npub1rt8xs3e8gkexg2f5cctjckv57hcffuqaad6jz3wj2gj7vdag0fgqwnashz Steve Bellovin For some reason, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFvxqQTh3m4 is on my mind this morning. Also https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CB4xpqNSYpk and lots of disgusting history. npub1rt8xs3e8gkexg2f5cctjckv57hcffuqaad6jz3wj2gj7vdag0fgqwnashz Steve Bellovin @nprofile…t9fa You never know. For years, an editor would visit me, we'd chat, and then I'd tell him I had nothing to write about. One day, though, Bill Cheswick and I ended up on the same Amtrak train to a conference, came up with an idea—and that would probably have gone nowhere except that I received my annual visit shortly thereafter. npub1rt8xs3e8gkexg2f5cctjckv57hcffuqaad6jz3wj2gj7vdag0fgqwnashz Steve Bellovin Security experts: what are your favorite myths about security? Don't bother with anything in https://www.usenix.org/system/files/conference/soups2015/soups15-paper-ion.pdf — I've already got those… Reply here or by email to me. npub1rt8xs3e8gkexg2f5cctjckv57hcffuqaad6jz3wj2gj7vdag0fgqwnashz Steve Bellovin For the record, I hate git. npub1rt8xs3e8gkexg2f5cctjckv57hcffuqaad6jz3wj2gj7vdag0fgqwnashz Steve Bellovin I'm reading Volker Ullrich's book "Fateful Hours: The Collapse of the Weimar Republic". The parallels to today are—scary. npub1rt8xs3e8gkexg2f5cctjckv57hcffuqaad6jz3wj2gj7vdag0fgqwnashz Steve Bellovin Trump is like Midas, only everything he touches turns to fool's gold. npub1rt8xs3e8gkexg2f5cctjckv57hcffuqaad6jz3wj2gj7vdag0fgqwnashz Steve Bellovin The ghost of Edward R. Murrow—a man who reported on the fight against fascism, and whose TV show led the criticism of Sen. Joseph McCarthy—is more than uneasy. npub1rt8xs3e8gkexg2f5cctjckv57hcffuqaad6jz3wj2gj7vdag0fgqwnashz Steve Bellovin @nprofile…p6nk Nope—I know far too little about ML to have anything useful to say (which may make me an ideal reviewer #2, but that isn't a role I aspire to). OTOH, I had a paper reject ~10 days ago, so I'm feeling grumpy about the review process right now, not so much on my own behalf (hey, I'm retired; it just doesn't matter) as for the student co-authors. npub1rt8xs3e8gkexg2f5cctjckv57hcffuqaad6jz3wj2gj7vdag0fgqwnashz Steve Bellovin @nprofile…p6nk There's so much randomness in the peer review process, and there's always one reviewer (by convention, dubbed Reviewer #2) who seems to completely miss the point of the paper and who responds negatively due to made-up concerns about non-existent points. npub1rt8xs3e8gkexg2f5cctjckv57hcffuqaad6jz3wj2gj7vdag0fgqwnashz Steve Bellovin Heard a good one this morning about a failure of system design. A flight from Newark Airport to London Heathrow was delayed by 45 minutes because they were using facial recognition for boarding, and it misidentified someone. This is apparently a difficult problem to fix, and the captain had to give passengers a physical description of the guy—a white male, it turns out—to try to figure out who it was. npub1rt8xs3e8gkexg2f5cctjckv57hcffuqaad6jz3wj2gj7vdag0fgqwnashz Steve Bellovin From the Washington Post coverage of the shooting in Australia (https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/12/14/bondi-beach-shooting-australia/). And from the NY Times (https://www.nytimes.com/live/2025/12/14/world/sydney-bondi-beach-shooting): "hootings are rare in Australia, a country with one of the lowest gun-related death rates in the developed world." npub1rt8xs3e8gkexg2f5cctjckv57hcffuqaad6jz3wj2gj7vdag0fgqwnashz Steve Bellovin I'm fighting paperwork this morning, and the paperwork won. npub1rt8xs3e8gkexg2f5cctjckv57hcffuqaad6jz3wj2gj7vdag0fgqwnashz Steve Bellovin This administration is sounding more and more like North Korea, where even apart from the totalitarian "tendencies" (to put it mildly), all good things have to be attributed to Dear Leader. Even the arrest of a suspect in those pipe bombs apparently could not have been done without him, per these quotes from https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/04/us/politics/washington-dc-pipe-bombs-arrest-jan-6-fbi.html. Or consider the Cabinet meeting the other day, where "cabinet officials went around the room describing their work and heaping praise on him," per https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/02/us/politics/trump-sleep-cabinet-meeting.html. I won't even go into his desire to name things after himself (https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/03/us/politics/trump-us-institute-peace-name.html, https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/22/arts/kennedy-center-opera-melania-trump.html, https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-white-house-ballroom-after-officials/story?id=126843455, https://www.wusa9.com/article/news/politics/dulles-international-airport-president-donald-trump-congress-gop/65-b660eda1-3894-4221-8c81-2d47ab20e9bf , and more). npub1rt8xs3e8gkexg2f5cctjckv57hcffuqaad6jz3wj2gj7vdag0fgqwnashz Steve Bellovin The ICC should issue an arrest warrant for Hegseth, and at least start an investigation into Trump. npub1rt8xs3e8gkexg2f5cctjckv57hcffuqaad6jz3wj2gj7vdag0fgqwnashz Steve Bellovin 🎶🎹 npub1rt8xs3e8gkexg2f5cctjckv57hcffuqaad6jz3wj2gj7vdag0fgqwnashz Steve Bellovin @nprofile…3ujw Reminds me of sidewalk plaques I've seen in Europe. Here are examples from Amsterdam and Rome. npub1rt8xs3e8gkexg2f5cctjckv57hcffuqaad6jz3wj2gj7vdag0fgqwnashz Steve Bellovin The Trump regime wants to start making a list of Jews (https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/21/us/eeoc-university-pennsylvania-antisemitism-jewish.html). Now where have I heard that one before? npub1rt8xs3e8gkexg2f5cctjckv57hcffuqaad6jz3wj2gj7vdag0fgqwnashz Steve Bellovin @nprofile…u25x Absolutely, 100% correct. And now imagine a back door to the encryption keys used to protect communications on a possibly-hacked network. "Second verse, same as the first, a little bit louder, a little bit worse." npub1rt8xs3e8gkexg2f5cctjckv57hcffuqaad6jz3wj2gj7vdag0fgqwnashz Steve Bellovin @nprofile…pkdd Back at Bell Labs, when "the" primary timesharing machine was down (hey, I'm talking early 1980s), it was labeled "theory day". npub1rt8xs3e8gkexg2f5cctjckv57hcffuqaad6jz3wj2gj7vdag0fgqwnashz Steve Bellovin Should we start referring to ICE and CBP as the "brute squad", or is that inconceivable? (If my nomenclature is adopted, I think that that makes Stephen Miller a rodent of unusual size.) npub1rt8xs3e8gkexg2f5cctjckv57hcffuqaad6jz3wj2gj7vdag0fgqwnashz Steve Bellovin @nprofile…t9fa Well, we knew Trump wanted to build an arch in Washington… npub1rt8xs3e8gkexg2f5cctjckv57hcffuqaad6jz3wj2gj7vdag0fgqwnashz Steve Bellovin Oh, my—per the AP, the guy accused of assault for throwing a sandwich was acquitted. npub1rt8xs3e8gkexg2f5cctjckv57hcffuqaad6jz3wj2gj7vdag0fgqwnashz Steve Bellovin @nprofile…wezk Apart from anything else, the known technical problems facial recognition apps have with darker-skinned faces is itself cause for worry. Also, all such algorithms are inherently worse at a one-to-many match, as opposed to a confirmation match ("this face really does belong to John Doe"). npub1rt8xs3e8gkexg2f5cctjckv57hcffuqaad6jz3wj2gj7vdag0fgqwnashz Steve Bellovin I don’t *think* he’s going to rename Mar a Lago, let alone Washington, as Trumpgrad. https://www.threads.com/@gtconway3/post/DQNeldDkTtG npub1rt8xs3e8gkexg2f5cctjckv57hcffuqaad6jz3wj2gj7vdag0fgqwnashz Steve Bellovin @nprofile…fn3d My answer is in my profile for @nprofile…4p8s, my photography account: npub1rt8xs3e8gkexg2f5cctjckv57hcffuqaad6jz3wj2gj7vdag0fgqwnashz Steve Bellovin @nprofile…00p2 @nprofile…aya8 This is correct. More precisely, dumb terminals were communicating over a serial line and were generally sending 7-bit ASCII characters, not key down/key up signals. Therefore, something like SHIFT-CTRL-D is the same as CTRL-D — the position of the shift key didn't matter. (The real issue with old keyboards was "rollover" — how many keys could be down at once. With no rollover, you had to fully release a key before hitting the next, which really slowed down touch typists. Better keyboards had 2-key or even N-key roller over.) npub1rt8xs3e8gkexg2f5cctjckv57hcffuqaad6jz3wj2gj7vdag0fgqwnashz Steve Bellovin One of the things that always gets to me when riding the DC Metro is all of the ads for defense equipment. I’m waiting to see what shows up next month, as we approach the “holiday” season. I mean, I can just imagine: “Cyber Monday Sale: buy a squadron of F-35s; get 50% off on munitions!” npub1rt8xs3e8gkexg2f5cctjckv57hcffuqaad6jz3wj2gj7vdag0fgqwnashz Steve Bellovin One frog, several unicorns, a lobster, a cow, some dinosaurs, and a bald eagle showed up. npub1rt8xs3e8gkexg2f5cctjckv57hcffuqaad6jz3wj2gj7vdag0fgqwnashz Steve Bellovin Best sign I’ve seen thus far: “United we ribbet. Divided we croak.” npub1rt8xs3e8gkexg2f5cctjckv57hcffuqaad6jz3wj2gj7vdag0fgqwnashz Steve Bellovin For the next No King demonstration, I’m going to wear a tricorn hat. I’ll skip the powdered wig, though. npub1rt8xs3e8gkexg2f5cctjckv57hcffuqaad6jz3wj2gj7vdag0fgqwnashz Steve Bellovin For some reason, this quote, attributed to Cardinal Richelieu, is in my mind: “If you give me six lines written by the hand of the most honest of men, I will find something in them which will hang him.” I can’t imagine why. npub1rt8xs3e8gkexg2f5cctjckv57hcffuqaad6jz3wj2gj7vdag0fgqwnashz Steve Bellovin He likes everything bigger, so he’ll build two arches. And he likes gold, so we’ll get golden arches… npub1rt8xs3e8gkexg2f5cctjckv57hcffuqaad6jz3wj2gj7vdag0fgqwnashz Steve Bellovin First, look for the plaintext. Gift link: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/16/science/kryptos-cia-solution-sanborn-auction.html?unlocked_article_code=1.t08.hHO4.Nom2O2iLBDGZ&smid=url-share npub1rt8xs3e8gkexg2f5cctjckv57hcffuqaad6jz3wj2gj7vdag0fgqwnashz Steve Bellovin New blog post: "Why Legislators Need Technologists": https://www.cs.columbia.edu/~smb/blog/2025-10/2025-10-15.html npub1rt8xs3e8gkexg2f5cctjckv57hcffuqaad6jz3wj2gj7vdag0fgqwnashz Steve Bellovin @nprofile…duyn Probably not. The requirement for standing comes from constitutional text; it's proved hard to grant it by statute, and impossible to protect against a future Congress abolishing the position. (There is explicit provision in the Constitution for the courts to appoint people.) npub1rt8xs3e8gkexg2f5cctjckv57hcffuqaad6jz3wj2gj7vdag0fgqwnashz Steve Bellovin Proposed constitutional amendment: npub1rt8xs3e8gkexg2f5cctjckv57hcffuqaad6jz3wj2gj7vdag0fgqwnashz Steve Bellovin I had an interesting experience exiting Customs today. There were some folks from CDC who were asking folks to volunteer to do nasal swabs, to test for Covid, flu, and RSV. They asked where we'd been, where we lived in the US, if we'd had the relevant vaccines (they seemed surprised we'd had the RSV shot), and if we'd ever had Covid (nope!). They did not ask for any PII—this was apparently a sampling technique to see if folks are bringing viruses in. npub1rt8xs3e8gkexg2f5cctjckv57hcffuqaad6jz3wj2gj7vdag0fgqwnashz Steve Bellovin Part of an art installation outside Waterloo Station in London. npub1rt8xs3e8gkexg2f5cctjckv57hcffuqaad6jz3wj2gj7vdag0fgqwnashz Steve Bellovin @nprofile…lmlu @[email protected] Also worth noting: in the 7th Circuit, there is a First Amendment right to film police (ACLU v. Alvarez, 679 F.3d 583, cert. denied). npub1rt8xs3e8gkexg2f5cctjckv57hcffuqaad6jz3wj2gj7vdag0fgqwnashz Steve Bellovin Donald of Orange? The King in Orange? npub1rt8xs3e8gkexg2f5cctjckv57hcffuqaad6jz3wj2gj7vdag0fgqwnashz Steve Bellovin There are fairly disgusting, not to say dishonest, recruiting ads for ICE on DC-area TV programs. They're aimed at current law enforcement officers, playing on their oaths of office (sanctuary cities require you to not protect the people you were sworn to protect) and saying that ICE only arrests "the worst of the worst", which in reality seems to mean anyone brown-skinned, as opposed to the "predators" the ads talk about. And there's a $50K sign-up bonus, student loan forgiveness, etc. npub1rt8xs3e8gkexg2f5cctjckv57hcffuqaad6jz3wj2gj7vdag0fgqwnashz Steve Bellovin @nprofile…pj45 @nprofile…sqcg Yes, this last sentence. I made decent money from my first book, but to a large extent it made my career soar. npub1rt8xs3e8gkexg2f5cctjckv57hcffuqaad6jz3wj2gj7vdag0fgqwnashz Steve Bellovin @nprofile…4dwe If he can’t get the Nobel Peace Prize, he’s going to try for the Nobel War Prize. npub1rt8xs3e8gkexg2f5cctjckv57hcffuqaad6jz3wj2gj7vdag0fgqwnashz Steve Bellovin What's interesting here and in a similar case in California is that grand juries seem to be returning to their original purpose, as a check on overzealous prosecutors. There's a reason the Fifth Amendment starts "No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury". npub1rt8xs3e8gkexg2f5cctjckv57hcffuqaad6jz3wj2gj7vdag0fgqwnashz Steve Bellovin @nprofile…sqcg @nprofile…pl0z As you say, alphabetical. But see https://www.computer.org/csdl/proceedings-article/sp/2022/131600b564/1FlQGr1uuOI — I did not wish this paper to be cited as "Bellovin et al.". Like you, I was past needing further brownie points and visibility. For the students, it was their first paper. (Also note the footnote about joint first authorship for the students.) npub1rt8xs3e8gkexg2f5cctjckv57hcffuqaad6jz3wj2gj7vdag0fgqwnashz Steve Bellovin @nprofile…sqcg @nprofile…pl0z One slight exception: I always make sure that student authors are listed first. This helps with citations of the form Name, Name, et al.—they get more visibility. (I have an unfair advantage in alphabetical author lists—and I've advised two students whose family names began with "Z".) npub1rt8xs3e8gkexg2f5cctjckv57hcffuqaad6jz3wj2gj7vdag0fgqwnashz Steve Bellovin @nprofile…l2nm A T-shirt I was given some years ago… npub1rt8xs3e8gkexg2f5cctjckv57hcffuqaad6jz3wj2gj7vdag0fgqwnashz Steve Bellovin Just think—if we hadn't switched to semiconductor RAM, memory management could have been done by a core daemon, as opposed to the demon core. Gives new meaning to a process's storage requirements blowing up… npub1rt8xs3e8gkexg2f5cctjckv57hcffuqaad6jz3wj2gj7vdag0fgqwnashz Steve Bellovin We now have a new definition of chutzpah… npub1rt8xs3e8gkexg2f5cctjckv57hcffuqaad6jz3wj2gj7vdag0fgqwnashz Steve Bellovin @nprofile…4dwe Well, sure; there's lots of precedent in the US for that, like 1864, 1944, 1952, 1968, 1972, and 2004. Oh, wait… npub1rt8xs3e8gkexg2f5cctjckv57hcffuqaad6jz3wj2gj7vdag0fgqwnashz Steve Bellovin I've been thinking about Trump's claim that he can ban mail-in voting and voting machines because "the states are just agents of the Federal government" in elections. His claims about massive fraud are, of course, nonsense, and problems with voting machines are best addressed by risk-limiting audits (which require hand-countable paper ballots that are scanned by machines). But what of the "agent" claim? npub1rt8xs3e8gkexg2f5cctjckv57hcffuqaad6jz3wj2gj7vdag0fgqwnashz Steve Bellovin Are we finally going to get a case where a prosecutor actually does persuade a grand jury to indict a ham sandwich? npub1rt8xs3e8gkexg2f5cctjckv57hcffuqaad6jz3wj2gj7vdag0fgqwnashz Steve Bellovin Looking back at the proceedings of Usenix '84, the first time I was on a program committee (https://archive.org/details/1984-proceedings-summer-salt-lake-city/page/n3/mode/2up). There were two program co-chairs and *four* PC members… This year, Usenix Security has >400 people on its PC. ( @nprofile…d2a6, I see that you were at that conference, too.) npub1rt8xs3e8gkexg2f5cctjckv57hcffuqaad6jz3wj2gj7vdag0fgqwnashz Steve Bellovin I'm at Usenix Security in Seattle—and it turns out that Worldcon is in the same (massive) building. How I wish that they'd had a cross-registration agreement! (OTOH, it means that the Usenix attendees are not the strangest people wandering around…) npub1rt8xs3e8gkexg2f5cctjckv57hcffuqaad6jz3wj2gj7vdag0fgqwnashz Steve Bellovin Some years ago in January, I had a morning meeting in the White House complex. Walking from my hotel to the gate, I, too, was disturbed by the homeless people I saw. Why? It had snowed lightly overnight, and from the snow on their blankets it was clear that these people had spent the night outside. npub1rt8xs3e8gkexg2f5cctjckv57hcffuqaad6jz3wj2gj7vdag0fgqwnashz Steve Bellovin This quote from the article has gotten far too little attention: "The second person said that roughly a dozen court dockets were tampered with in one court district as a result of the hack. The first person was not aware of any tampering but said it was theoretically possible." npub1rt8xs3e8gkexg2f5cctjckv57hcffuqaad6jz3wj2gj7vdag0fgqwnashz Steve Bellovin The State Department wants to kill the tourism industry: bonds of up to $15,000 for (certain) applicants for tourist or business visas. npub1rt8xs3e8gkexg2f5cctjckv57hcffuqaad6jz3wj2gj7vdag0fgqwnashz Steve Bellovin @nprofile…4dwe We know what radioactive spider bites can do, but what about radioactive wasp stings? npub1rt8xs3e8gkexg2f5cctjckv57hcffuqaad6jz3wj2gj7vdag0fgqwnashz Steve Bellovin @nprofile…8nj8 Since my partner used to work at BLS (though not on employment numbers), I'll disagree… "It's a statistical agency; ain't no politics." And the agency prides itself on producing the most accurate numbers they possibly can. npub1rt8xs3e8gkexg2f5cctjckv57hcffuqaad6jz3wj2gj7vdag0fgqwnashz Steve Bellovin In other news, Lysenko has been appointed to head a major Federal genetics project, and Trump has new tailors who use an amazingly thin, almost invisible cloth. npub1rt8xs3e8gkexg2f5cctjckv57hcffuqaad6jz3wj2gj7vdag0fgqwnashz Steve Bellovin Nice to know that this battery is made of cotton and is machine-washable. npub1rt8xs3e8gkexg2f5cctjckv57hcffuqaad6jz3wj2gj7vdag0fgqwnashz Steve Bellovin Just saw a version announcement for the terminal emulator I use on my Mac (iterm2) that it's now a web browser, too, and has an interface to an AI system. WTAF? And will the next version be a floor wax as well as a dessert topping? npub1rt8xs3e8gkexg2f5cctjckv57hcffuqaad6jz3wj2gj7vdag0fgqwnashz Steve Bellovin The Jerusalem Post calls him the "leading Republican candidate" (https://www.jpost.com/american-politics/article-862394) and that he called Auschwitz a “beautiful work camp.” (It did note that he was highly unlikely to make it to the general election, given California's electoral system.) KTLA reports that a few months ago, he posted “Jews need to become Catholic, worship Jesus Christ, and abandon the state of Israel.” npub1rt8xs3e8gkexg2f5cctjckv57hcffuqaad6jz3wj2gj7vdag0fgqwnashz Steve Bellovin I don't know when I first heard Tom Lehrer's songs, but it was no later than the US run of "That Was the Week That Was" (1963-1965). (I personally blamed the Goldwater campaign for kill TW3—it bought TW3's time slot every week for a long campaign ad, thereby preventing the show from building up viewership in an era when the fall was when people established their weekly viewing habits for the season.) npub1rt8xs3e8gkexg2f5cctjckv57hcffuqaad6jz3wj2gj7vdag0fgqwnashz Steve Bellovin One of the great ones has passed. npub1rt8xs3e8gkexg2f5cctjckv57hcffuqaad6jz3wj2gj7vdag0fgqwnashz Steve Bellovin Where are we going, and why are we in this handbasket? npub1rt8xs3e8gkexg2f5cctjckv57hcffuqaad6jz3wj2gj7vdag0fgqwnashz Steve Bellovin @nprofile…e60c @nprofile…rwce @nprofile…qz4x Yup. (Years ago, I was at a NANOG (North American Network Operators Group) meeting where a nearby street had a line of backhoes parked. I think it was a warning.) npub1rt8xs3e8gkexg2f5cctjckv57hcffuqaad6jz3wj2gj7vdag0fgqwnashz Steve Bellovin When I moved into the dorms at Columbia my freshman year and unpacked, I found that my parents had clipped and saved this cartoon. Then, it was referring to the massive student demonstrations at Columbia, but it seems appropriate now, too… npub1rt8xs3e8gkexg2f5cctjckv57hcffuqaad6jz3wj2gj7vdag0fgqwnashz Steve Bellovin Opinion at https://cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2025/07/23/25-807.pdf npub1rt8xs3e8gkexg2f5cctjckv57hcffuqaad6jz3wj2gj7vdag0fgqwnashz Steve Bellovin Looks like another constitutional showdown is coming… 47 had named Alina Habba—a completely unqualified MAGA warrior—as interim US Attorney for New Jersey. He also nominated her for the position. Given her behavior in office, NJ's senators have declined to support her; by Senate traditions, that kills the nomination. The interim appointment, by law, is good for 120 days. The law also provides that if the position is vacant, the judges in the district can appoint an interim US Attorney, which is what just happened. The administration responded by firing the judge-appointed attorney (who happens to be extremely qualified) and reappointing Habba. npub1rt8xs3e8gkexg2f5cctjckv57hcffuqaad6jz3wj2gj7vdag0fgqwnashz Steve Bellovin Oh, my—look what I just found unpacking a box after my move. It's a bit anomalous, in that I never used a IBM 1401, though I did have a bit of experience (though not in assembler) with the 1410. Note the columns labeled "assembled instruction"—on some systems, including the IBM 1130 that I had a *lot* of experience with, the assembler could punch the binary into a card—useful on diskless or low-disk systems. Yes, you'd have to use fresh source cards when you changed the program, but that wasn't hard; the programmable—and by "programmable" I mean "changing wires on a plugboard"—card duplicators of the time could easily reproduce just the source lines and omit the binary from the last run. npub1rt8xs3e8gkexg2f5cctjckv57hcffuqaad6jz3wj2gj7vdag0fgqwnashz Steve Bellovin @nprofile…sqcg @nprofile…jkcn And now you know why I ignored my school's "mandatory" cybersecurity training. I even complained about it (and they know my background), but just said "sorry, that's the way it works". npub1rt8xs3e8gkexg2f5cctjckv57hcffuqaad6jz3wj2gj7vdag0fgqwnashz Steve Bellovin Worth noting: Newsweek ran an article two days ago wondering what was going to happen to Colbert (and Jon Stewart): https://www.newsweek.com/jon-stewart-stephen-colbert-future-paramount-skydance-cbs-comedy-central-trump-2097919 npub1rt8xs3e8gkexg2f5cctjckv57hcffuqaad6jz3wj2gj7vdag0fgqwnashz Steve Bellovin “Purely a financial decision” means they were afraid of what they’d have to pay Trump for the next lawsuit. https://journa.host/@w7voa/114871300844468324 npub1rt8xs3e8gkexg2f5cctjckv57hcffuqaad6jz3wj2gj7vdag0fgqwnashz Steve Bellovin MAGA is a death cult. npub1rt8xs3e8gkexg2f5cctjckv57hcffuqaad6jz3wj2gj7vdag0fgqwnashz Steve Bellovin New Woody Guthrie songs! https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/14/arts/music/woody-guthrie-tapes-woody-at-home.html?unlocked_article_code=1.WU8.26BQ.dZpmccvCdq5m&smid=url-share (gift link) npub1rt8xs3e8gkexg2f5cctjckv57hcffuqaad6jz3wj2gj7vdag0fgqwnashz Steve Bellovin That thing where, when you're expecting folks for dinner, you learn that there's been an emergency hot water shutdown in the building. It shouldn't be a disaster—even apart from the fact that they claim the water will be back on by 3pm, essentially all relevant dishes, pans, etc., are clean (though it's lucky that we cleaned the mixer bowl last night, since I need it today for making the ciabatta). npub1rt8xs3e8gkexg2f5cctjckv57hcffuqaad6jz3wj2gj7vdag0fgqwnashz Steve Bellovin @nprofile…j3rp And by a curious coincidence, the president of the university is a Black man. npub1rt8xs3e8gkexg2f5cctjckv57hcffuqaad6jz3wj2gj7vdag0fgqwnashz Steve Bellovin During Bush II's administration, I was asked to serve on a government advisory committee. There was a form asking our political affiliation—with the statement that by law, they could not require an answer, but they wanted to be able to show the press that they did not discriminate against Democrats. I declined to answer, and was still appointed. Someone else on the committee said that he answered "liberal Democrat"; he, too, was appointed. And this was during Bush's time! (I'll skip the details, but when I was asked to join another advisory committee when Obama took office there was even more evidence of honesty and respect for process.) npub1rt8xs3e8gkexg2f5cctjckv57hcffuqaad6jz3wj2gj7vdag0fgqwnashz Steve Bellovin Barrage balloons 2.0… npub1rt8xs3e8gkexg2f5cctjckv57hcffuqaad6jz3wj2gj7vdag0fgqwnashz Steve Bellovin I see that @nprofile…xsx6's new book is featured in today's NY Times book review! (https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/04/books/review/rebels-robbers-and-radicals-the-story-of-the-bill-of-rights-teri-kanefield.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare) npub1rt8xs3e8gkexg2f5cctjckv57hcffuqaad6jz3wj2gj7vdag0fgqwnashz Steve Bellovin I swear, as I was scrolling I thought this was an Onion headline. npub1rt8xs3e8gkexg2f5cctjckv57hcffuqaad6jz3wj2gj7vdag0fgqwnashz Steve Bellovin @nprofile…8nj8 She left Georgetown in 2002 (and, per Wikipedia, retired from the Naval Postgraduate School in 2016). Besides, she was CS; I'll be at the law school, which is across town from the main campus. I do have two CS books planned, and many law review papers. npub1rt8xs3e8gkexg2f5cctjckv57hcffuqaad6jz3wj2gj7vdag0fgqwnashz Steve Bellovin The times they are a changin'… npub1rt8xs3e8gkexg2f5cctjckv57hcffuqaad6jz3wj2gj7vdag0fgqwnashz Steve Bellovin If https://wapo.st/3GnBQ0w (gift link) is carried out, it will be possible to travel from Montauk or Poughkeepsie, NY, or Waterbury, CT, all the way to Washington, DC and beyond to Spotsylvania, VA, entirely by commuter rail. (LIRR or MetroNorth to NYC, NJ Transit to Trenton, SEPTA to Philadelphia and thence to Wilmington, MARC to Washington, and then VRE into Virginia. npub1rt8xs3e8gkexg2f5cctjckv57hcffuqaad6jz3wj2gj7vdag0fgqwnashz Steve Bellovin From a technical perspective, I know how to build privacy-preserving age verification systems. That's the good news. The bad news is that the solution requires universal browser changes, an identity verification industry that doesn't exist, possession of strong ID documents (which we know from voter ID litigation rules out many people, including the rural poor) by all would-be users, a payment that is likely unpleasant for poorer families, and (perhaps) noticeable tech sophistication. npub1rt8xs3e8gkexg2f5cctjckv57hcffuqaad6jz3wj2gj7vdag0fgqwnashz Steve Bellovin Why does the mention of a shower—or should I say "shower"—in a concentration camp worry me? (Hint: I've seen the names of (distant) relatives in the Book of Names at Auschwitz.) npub1rt8xs3e8gkexg2f5cctjckv57hcffuqaad6jz3wj2gj7vdag0fgqwnashz Steve Bellovin So many Columbia University IT systems have been offline for >24 hours, possibly due to a cyberattack: https://www.columbiaspectator.com/news/2025/06/24/columbia-nypd-investigating-hourslong-university-it-outage/. npub1rt8xs3e8gkexg2f5cctjckv57hcffuqaad6jz3wj2gj7vdag0fgqwnashz Steve Bellovin At 2200, Trump will announce that US bombers dropped a load of bone spurs on Iran. npub1rt8xs3e8gkexg2f5cctjckv57hcffuqaad6jz3wj2gj7vdag0fgqwnashz Steve Bellovin If you understand the functional purpose of this getup, you’re an old-timer like me who was willing to work around stupid restrictions. (Hint: often, the lever part of a nail clipper could achieve the same ultimate goal.)
